


couldn't fall for someone I thought couldn't misbehave

by raedear



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Character's Name Spelled as Viktor, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Meet-Cute, Minor Phichit Chulanont/Christophe Giacometti, Silly, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, do not copy to another site
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:34:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23127880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raedear/pseuds/raedear
Summary: Yuuri wants to believe he'll love his soulmate. His mark makes it difficult.
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Comments: 79
Kudos: 486





	couldn't fall for someone I thought couldn't misbehave

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [thewalrus_said](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewalrus_said) for beta-ing <3

There were so many lovely ways for soulmate connections to manifest. Like Yuuri’s parents, it could be a whisper as you fell asleep, your love’s voice wishing you goodnight. Or maybe like Phichit, whose left eye was a stunning shade of green. His mother’s had been the same, a warm shade of brown quite distinct from her own, until the day she met her wife. When they woke up the next morning they didn’t have one eye different anymore, but they did have each other. So many possibilities, so many stories of true love or unbreakable friendships. Yuuri struggled sometimes, not to be jealous. Mari had inherited a similar connection to their parents, and she heard her soulmate’s voice in her dreams. Yuuri?

Yuuri had a bright pink handprint. On his ass. 

He had been thankful while he lived at home that it was frowned upon to ask about someone’s soulmate. People only really brought it up within their families, or if they had a particular reason to discuss it, so he’d managed to get through most of his life without having to describe the particular manifestation of his link to his soulmate. That changed in Detroit. While Americans weren’t necessarily rude about asking, they certainly were more forward. He had been so shy about it at first that to this day some of his classmates believed he didn’t have a manifestation at all.

When he had told Phichit about it (and then shown him, if just to make him stop asking), Phichit had laughed himself sick. Eventually, however, when he had calmed down, he did his best to make Yuuri feel better about it. While Yuuri was excited to meet whomever his soulmate turned out to be, he wasn’t necessarily excited that they’d be the type of person who would grab someone’s ass. 

‘It would be a really weird way to grab someone’s ass though,’ said Phichit thoughtfully when Yuuri admitted that to him. ‘It’s sideways across your butt, you’d think if they’re going to grab you the handprint would be straight down, or like, it would be a pinch-print.’ He had sniggered a little still as he spoke, but he was genuinely trying to help. ‘Maybe they’ll surprise you, and it won’t be as bad as you think?’ 

‘I think they’re going to surprise me no matter what,’ said Yuuri, but he saw Phichit’s point. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as he’d worried it would be. Maybe it would be fun, to meet someone so flirty. 

It was not fun meeting flirty people. In the four years he spent in Detroit Yuuri had his ass grabbed no less than six times by absolute strangers in clubs, or on the street. Each one had been in entirely the wrong place, and Yuuri hadn’t felt any compunctions at all in showing any of them just how unwanted their touch was. The last guy had cried. Phichit had recorded the entire thing. 

Yuuri had mostly given up on his soulmate. He just couldn’t see a way to make such an invasive touch into something pleasant. He stopped making even the politest of conversation about it, and just waved away any questions. He stopped looking at people in bars - or anywhere else for that matter. If it was meant to happen, it would happen. If it didn’t, then he was just one of those unfortunate people who never made their connection, and that was just fine. Phichit tried to cheer him up about it, but really, it wasn’t the end of the world if there wasn’t really someone out there who would love him so deeply it was written on his skin. He’d be fine on his own. 

\---

Life went on. He finished uni, moved to Saint Petersburg to join the Mariinsky, and made a very concerted effort to make it clear that his body was off-limits outside of dancing. It felt like every day he spotted people completing their connections, and he tried his best not to envy them. Even Phichit had met his, bumping into man with the mirror image of his own eyes on the metro in Paris. He and Christophe were living together now, and Yuuri was very happy for them. Honestly. 

He just wished his own destiny could have been a little easier to find. 

Of course, it would have been when he truly stopped looking that destiny found him. 

He was helping his neighbour when it happened. A storm the night before had blown one of her flower baskets off its hook beside her door, and she was too frail to climb the ladder to put it back up. He was on the top rung, balanced slightly precariously as he fiddled with the hook and catch, struggling to see where they would connect through the flowers, when something slammed into the ladder below him. He had a second in the air to worry about how high up he was, and how important his legs were to his entire life, before he began to fall.

Someone caught him before he could meet the ground. Yuuri blinked. His arms had come up instinctively to wrap themselves around the person’s neck, and he could feel one of their hands between his shoulders. The other held his ass. He clung to them for a moment, breathing hard through the terror. His ears were buzzing, and it took him some time to realise that whomever was holding him was talking. 

‘Are you alright? Can you hear me?’ His voice was high with fright, and thankfully he was speaking English. Yuuri’s Russian was shaky at the best of times. This truly was not the best of times. 

Yuuri lifted his head from the man’s collarbone, and looked up at him, suddenly dazed for a whole new reason. He was _beautiful._ His eyes were painfully blue and wide with shock. His hair was long and seemed to shine almost silver in the sunlight. Yuuri could feel it brush against his own cheek as it caught in the wind. He managed a nod, but couldn’t stop staring. The man gave him a relieved smile, and hefted him a little higher in his arms. 

‘I am _so sorry_ ,’ he said, guilt dripping from every word. ‘I was playing with my dog and I didn’t even notice the ladder until she crashed into it.’ 

Yuuri looked the other way, and sure enough a dog was sat in front of them, panting happily up at him. He nodded again, and felt a little bereft as the man gently set him on his feet. 

‘Are you hurt? Can I do anything for you?’ the man asked, his hands still held out towards Yuuri as though he was barely stopping himself from patting him down to see for himself that Yuuri wasn’t hurt. 

‘I-,’ Yuuri had to cough, overwhelmed by everything, before he tried again. ‘I’m fine, thank you for catching me...’ He trailed off as he realised he had no idea who he was talking to. The man blushed slightly before he spoke in a rush. 

‘Viktor! I’m Viktor, and this is Makkachin,’ Viktor said, gesturing at his dog, who was now bumping her head against Yuuri’s leg looking for pets. Yuuri gave her pets, obviously; he scratched her ears and smiled shakily at Viktor. 

‘Thank you, Viktor,’ he managed at last.

Viktor waved his hands however, shaking his head. 

‘Please don’t thank me, it was my fault. Are you sure you’re not hurt?’

‘I’m fine, I promise. I just got a fright, that’s all.’ 

Viktor looked relieved, and he patted his leg to catch Makkachin’s attention. ‘We’ll get out of your way then. I’m sorry, again.’

Yuuri was a little sad to see them go, to be honest. Viktor was stunning, and Makkachin was sweet. But he didn’t really have any way to make them stay, so he nodded and smiled, and turned back to the ladder as they walked away. He noticed, when he looked up, that he’d managed to hook the flower basket into place just before he’d fallen. He was bending to pick up the ladder when the sound of someone running caught his attention, and something slammed into him again. 

Now-familiar hands caught him about the shoulders. 

‘I’m sorry! Please, excuse me, I’m sorry, but I have to know!’ Viktor was holding him again, turning him bodily to face him, his mouth stretched wide around a bright grin. 

‘Know what?’ gasped Yuuri, confused beyond belief. 

Viktor held up his left hand so the palm faced Yuuri. 

‘It’s gone!’ He looked expectantly at Yuuri, as though waiting for something.

‘... What’s gone?’ Yuuri didn’t like the disappointment that flooded Viktor’s face as he asked his question.

‘Oh,’ Viktor said, looking at his hand. ‘I... thought.’ He stopped, and took a breath before he spoke again. ‘My palm has always been blue. It’s not anymore. I thought... I thought maybe you had something similar. I guess I was wrong.’ He gave Yuuri a smile that was painful to see. ‘I’m sorry to have bothered you again.’ 

He turned to walk away, and before he could think, Yuuri reached out and caught his arm. Viktor looked back at him over his shoulder. His eyes were wet. Yuuri took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.

‘I do have something similar. It’s just not on my hand.’

When he opened his eyes, Viktor had turned fully to face him. His expression was wide open and hopeful, and Yuuri felt the first real stirrings of hope he’d felt in years. 

‘Where is it?’ Viktor’s voice was hushed, and he’d taken Yuuri’s hand without him noticing. 

‘It’s-’ Yuuri choked slightly and blushed, looking quickly around the street. They were alone, but still. He tugged on Viktor’s hand and led him down the road towards the close between his apartment building and his neighbour’s house. Viktor followed him without question, but he had a very confused look on his face. 

When they were out of sight of the street, behind a tall pile of boxes, Yuuri let go of Viktor’s hand and turned away from him. He took another deep breath, and undid his jeans, dropping them and his underwear down to just below the curve of his ass.

There was a beat, and then Viktor spoke. His tone was very dry.

‘Not that it’s not a lovely view, but what am I supposed to be looking at?’ 

Yuuri looked over his shoulder and down at himself as best he could. 

The handprint was gone. He’d just flashed his bare ass to a complete stranger for no reason.

Well no, he thought as excitement rose giddily through him, a very good reason actually. He pulled his jeans up sharply and buttoned them back in place before he turned to grab Viktor’s hand again. He still looked hopeful, but there was a wariness to his gaze now that Yuuri was suddenly desperate to remove. 

‘My whole life I’ve been afraid to meet my soulmate because the first thing I thought they were going to do was grab my ass.’ Comprehension was dawning in Viktor’s eyes, his smile growing larger by the word. ‘I hated that pink handprint for years.’ He lifted Viktor’s hand to his face, and kissed his knuckles. ‘I never could have imagined how it would lead me to you.’

Viktor laughed, wet and bright. His eyes were shining again, and he reached out and pulled Yuuri into a tight embrace, rocking him delightedly from side to side. 

‘I can’t believe I had my hand on your ass before I even knew your name.’ 

And Yuuri laughed too, at the absurdity of it all. 

‘My name is Yuuri. It’s very, very nice to meet you, Viktor.’ 

Viktor leaned back just enough to meet his eyes. 

‘It’s very nice to meet you too, Yuuri.’

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> here is a word I physically cannot say because it sounds dumb as fuck in my accent: ass.
> 
> here is a word that does not work in fics not set in the UK: arse.
> 
> here is a sad author: me.
> 
> Pls leave a comment to tell me how sad you are that 'arse' didn't work in this fic and I had to say 'ass' instead. Or a kudos, with that thought implied.
> 
> Or hit me up on [twitter](https://twitter.com/raedear_writes) where occasionally I post threads that I can't be annoyed making into fics c:


End file.
